Sweetbitter

This was such a wonderful book at many levels. Think of Sweetbitter as a coming-of-age novel combined with a homage to New York. It captures the 21st-century zeitgeist perfectly. At the same time, as the novel's title suggests, Sweetbitter is also a wonderful insight into not just how we taste, but how the restaurant industry works. Taste, of course, relates not just to how we perceive and experience food and drink, but it is also a signifier of choice and preference. You can either have taste or not; equally, it can be acquired, lost, reconfigured, and so on. For Tess, the narrator of this novel, she experiences the full spectrum of sensations, the highs and lows of America's most lively city. Its energy, its intensity is part of its charm, but you have to embrace it before it rejects you. Danler captures superbly the journey from naivety to optimism, followed by cynicism and an acceptance or resignation. This could serve as the template for how Tess learns to perceive herself, as well as her relationships, both with people and food. Ultimately, there is the show, or artifice, and then the reality. What is sweet can also equally be bitter. Further in New York, relationships, like the business of running a restaurant, can be both romantic and transactional. Superbly knowing, Danler, like Tess, is a burgeoning talent. Nine and a half out of ten.

By Stephanie Danler